PSJD News Digest – August 29, 2025

August 29, 2025 at 10:59 am · Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress

Hi Interested Public,

Welcome to the end of another week. Events continue to unfold at breakneck speed. Highlighted stories this week include reassignments within the federal civil service (DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the JAG Corps, specifically)–as well as a new DOJ policy expanding the eligibility criteria for temporary immigration judicial appointments. Additional news includes an EO banning collective bargaining at additional federal agencies, a petition from the Florida Attorney General to allow out-of-state attorneys to practice in state government, the possible end of a long-running public defender strike in Massachusetts, and more news which, as always, is covered in the links below. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • DOJ Fires and Reassigns Civil Rights Lawyers as New Hires Arrive (Bloomberg Law; 25 Aug 2025)

    “The Justice Department civil rights division’s much shrunken career staff is facing new firings, forced reassignments, and demands for summaries of recent work as its leaders hire outside attorneys and redirect the division’s mission. Taken together, the personnel moves reflect the Trump administration ramping up what’s already been a rapid overhaul of the division’s traditional priorities, and come after roughly 75% of career lawyers have left in recent months.”

  • DOJ to grant itself authority to tap any attorney to serve as an immigration judge (Government Executive; 27 Aug 2025)

    “Since 2014, the department has allowed only former immigration judges, administrative law judges from other agencies or Justice attorneys with at least 10 years of experience related to immigration law to serve as temporary immigration judges, or TIJs. In its update, to be issued Thursday as a final rule, EOIR called those parameters overly restrictive…The new rule will permit the EOIR director, with Bondi’s approval, “to designate or select any attorney to serve as a TIJ” for six-month stints, though the department did not cap the number of extensions that it may grant. Employees may come to EOIR as detailees from Justice or other agencies, or as newly hired “special government employees.”

    Ensuring the temporary judges have immigration law experience no longer “serves EOIR’s interest,” the agency said in the notice.”

Federal RIFs & Grant Cancellations

  • HHS the latest to cancel union contracts and implement Trump’s order (Government Executive; 25 Aug 2025)

    “The decision seemingly contradicts the Office of Personnel Management’s guidance not to terminate collective bargaining agreements while litigation challenging the edict progresses, though it was recently amended only to prohibit NTEU contract terminations.”

  • A fresh executive order aims to ban unions at more federal agencies (Government Executive; 28 Aug 2025)

    “President Trump on Thursday signed a new executive order targeting unions at more than half a dozen agencies, again under the auspices of national security…Thursday’s order would ban collective bargaining at the International Trade Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office within the Commerce Department; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service and the National Weather Service; as well as NASA and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It states that all these agencies “have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work.”

  • Trump administration again appeals to the Supreme Court over his foreign aid funding freeze (CTV News; 27 Aug 2025)

    “The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal seeking quick intervention to halt lower court decisions that have kept the money flowing, including for global health and HIV and AIDS programs…The justices rebuffed the Trump administration on the issue earlier this year, but the court was divided 5-4. The justices have since sided with the administration in several high-profile cases.”

Civil Society

  • How 2 Efforts to Defend Nonprofits Tiptoe Around the Elephant in the Room [opinion] (Inside Philanthropy; 22 Aug 2025)

    “Everyone with even a passing knowledge of current events knows that the wave of attacks against nonprofits is coming from a single political party. But instead of directly addressing that fact, the Council of Nonprofits has chosen to uplift the vital role that nonprofits play in communities across the U.S…There are, of course, legitimate legal and strategic reasons for the constraints both organizations have placed on their campaigns…instead of yelling at the people gunning for nonprofit funding, NCN is addressing the ignorance that has put such a large, easy target on the back of the sector in the first place. Cox also pointed out the constraints that tax law and IRS regulations place on the sector’s ability to engage in political speech — constraints that are worth taking seriously given the federal administration’s extreme zeal to go after Trump’s perceived enemies, but have also been overemphasized in their extent, time and again, by risk-averse funders…But without a dedicated, heavily funded and coordinated sector effort not just to acknowledge, but actively name the elephant endangering civil society, efforts to simply assert the facts about nonprofits and the giving world are akin to a lit match in Niagara Falls.”

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

  • American Bar Association issues alert regarding fraudulent immigration law practices (ABA News & Insights; 27 Aug 2025)

    “The American Bar Association (ABA) today issued an alert to the public regarding a sharp increase in the number of individuals fraudulently posing as immigration attorneys, often falsely stating they work for reputable legal services organizations, including the ABA, or that they have special relationships with government officials. ”

  • Community Foundation says shift to fund legal services for immigrants was always the plan (Nashville Tennessean; 25 Aug 2025)

    “When Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee first announced the foundation’s Belonging Fund, both parties made it clear: These donations wouldn't go toward supporting immigration legal services…That’s changing soon. Recently, Axios Nashville reported the donation page for the fund was updated to reflect that actually, funds will be directed to nonprofit organizations and service providers offering immigration-related legal services moving forward[.]”